PERSONALITY II:Surface traits, Source Traits, For learning theorists, Albert Bandura

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Introduction to Psychology PSY101

Lesson 32

PERSONALITY II

Allports' Trait Theory

As said earlier, after skimming an unabridged dictionary, Gordon Allport identified 18000 separate

terms that could be used to describe personality. After eliminating synonyms he came up with a list

of 4500 descriptions. BUT the important question was that what were the most basic traits?

Allport's Basic Traits Categories included three classic categories of traits:

Cardinal traits

Central traits

Secondary traits

Cardinal Traits refer to a single personality trait directing most of the person's behaviors and

activities e.g. affection, affiliation, kindness, and greed. The person's whole life, or behavior, is

influenced by this trait. A person who served the poor and the weak all his life may have a very high

degree of " kindness" or " nurturance". Or a person who likes to hoard things, people, and wealth

may be ruled by a high degree of " greed", or perhaps " inferiority".

Central Traits refer to those major characteristics that make up the core of someone's personality.

Most people develop a group or set of traits rather than a single one, that form the core of their

personality.

·Central traits usually number from 5- 10 in a person.

·e.g., affection, love for humanity, and nurturance will form one type of personality.

·Inferiority, need for control, and greed may give a different shape to personality.

Secondary Traits, qualities or characteristics that do have an effect on our personality but are much less

influential than cardinal or central traits.

These affect fewer life situations as compared to the cardinal or central traits, for example

preferring to wear certain colors, or a liking for specific tastes or smells.

Trait Theories Based Upon Factor Analysis

A number of trait theories are based upon factor analysis.

Factor analysis: a statistical method whereby relationships between a large number of variables are

summarized into fewer patterns. These patterns are more general in nature.. The extensive list is

For example: A researcher prepares a list of traits that people may like in an ideal man then

administered to a large number of people, who are asked to choose traits that may describe an

ideal man.

Through the factor analysis, the responses are statistically combined and the traits associated with

one another in the same set (or person) are computed. Thus the most fundamental patterns are

identified. These patterns are called factors.

Psychologists Raymond B Cattell, and Hans Eysenck presented trait theories based upon factor analysis

Raymond Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factors

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After using factor analysis Cattell proposed that two types of characteristics form our personality:

Surface traits, and

Source traits

Surface traits

Cattell's factor analysis showed that there are 46 surface traits or clusters of related behavior.

These traits are the characteristics that we can observe in a given situation.

The frequently quoted example in this regard is that of a friendly, gregarious librarian, who is so helpful that he might go

out of his way to help you; as a result of your interaction with him it can be decided that he possesses the trait of sociability.

His sociability is a surface trait in Cattell's terms.

· BUT surface traits may not necessarily represent the traits that actually underlie the personality of a

person; Surface traits are what we directly observe, and these are based upon our perceptions and

representations of personality. These may not be the true descriptions of the actual underlying

dimensions of someone's personality.

· The characteristics that form the actual roots and basis of all behavior may be different, and fewer in

number.

Source Traits

In order to go beyond the surface traits, Cattell carried out further factor analysis.

He could identify 16 traits that that represent basic dimensions of personality.

He called these traits, source traits.

16 Pf: Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire

Cattell developed a measure that provided a score for each of the 16 source traits.

High scorer

Low scorer

Factor symbol

Outgoing

Reserved

More intelligent

Less intelligent

Stable

Emotional

Assertive

Humble

Happy-go-lucky

Sober

Conscientious

Expedient

Bold

Shy

Tender-minded

Tough-minded

Suspicious

Trusting

Imaginative

Practical

Shrewd

Forthright

Apprehensive

Placid

Experimenting

Traditional

Self-sufficient

Group-tied

Controlled

Casual

Tense

Relaxed

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Eysenck's Dimensions of Personality

According to Eysenck, personality can be understood and described in terms of just two major

dimensions:

Introversion-extroversion,

Neuroticism-stability.

On the first dimension, people can be rated ranging from introverts to extroverts: the rest of the

traits fall in between.

The second dimension is independent of the first one, and ranges from being neurotic to being

stable.

Introversion-extroversion

Introvert

Quiet, passive, and careful people.

Extroverts

Outgoing, sociable, and active people.

Neuroticism-stability

Neurotics

Moody, touchy, and anxious people.

Stable

Calm, carefree, and even-tempered people.

Eysenck evaluated a number of people along these dimensions. Using the information thus obtained, he

could accurately predict people's behavior in a variety of situations.

The Recent Approach to Understanding Personality Traits

The "Big Five":

Five broad trait factors lie at the core of personality:

1. Surgency: Extroversion and sociability

2. Neuroticism: Emotional stability

3. Intellect

4. Agreeableness

5. Conscientiousness

3. Learning Approaches to Personality

Approaches that focus upon the "observable" person rather than the inner dives, instincts,

motives, thoughts, or traits.

For the learning theorists:

Personality is the aggregate of a person's learned responses to the external environment.

Variables considered most important by the learning theorist are the features of a person's

environment.

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Learning approaches are primarily based upon the principles of:

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Cognitive Learning

B. F. Skinner's Approach

· Personality is a collection of learned behavioral patterns.

· Patterns of reinforcement that have been received in various situations in the past cause

similarities in responses across different situations, when same or similar situations are

encountered.

For example a student tries to make a good presentation every time he has to present because

he has been receiving positive reinforcement for good presentations in the past...not because of

an inborn drive or a trait of being a hard working or industrious person. Similarly, a person who

is never aggressive may be so because he was always punished for aggressiveness and rewarded

for being polite.

For learning theorists

Consistencies in behavior across different situations are not as important as the strategies for

modifying behavior are.

Learning theorists are more optimistic in their approach, as compared to the psychodynamic

theorists; they believe in the potential for change, and do not believe in the passivity of psychic

determinism.

4. Social Cognitive Approach to Personality

The approaches that lay emphasis upon the role of people's cognitions in determining their

personalities.

Cognitions include: people's thoughts, feelings, expectations, and values.

These approaches consider the "inner" variables to be important in determining one's

personality.

These approaches emphasize the reciprocity between individuals and their environment.

There exists a web of reciprocity, consisting of the interaction of environment and people's behavior. Our

environment affects our behavior, and our behavior in turn influences our environment and causes

modifications in the environment. The modified environment in turn, affects our behavior.

Albert Bandura

According to him, we possess the ability to foresee the probable consequences of certain of our

behaviors in a given setting, without actually having carried out those behaviors or actually being

in those settings. This so happens primarily as a result of "observational learning" i.e., having seen

the outcomes of others (models) performing the same behaviors in same or similar situations.

For example, this is how we learn to be aggressive, sociable, or industrious.

Bandura also emphasized

Self-efficacy, and

Reciprocal determinism

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Self-efficacy

· Self-efficacy consists of learned expectations that one is capable of performing a certain

behavior, or producing a desired outcome.

Self-efficacy is the underlying variable in people's faith in their ability to carry out a particular

behavior.

The higher the sense of self-efficacy in a person the greater will be the persistence in his

behavior, and also the greater will be the likelihood of his success.

Reciprocal Determinism

· According to Bandura, the key to understanding behavior lies in reciprocal determinism.

· We can understand the personality and behavior of a person by understanding the interaction

between the environment, behavior, and the individual; and how this interaction causes people

to behave in the manner they do.

Environment affects behavior and the behavior in turn affects the environmental factors.

For example

A woman likes to make friends. She gets an opportunity to make friends at parties. She in turn

arranges parties herself and invites people she likes, or those she thinks are potential friends.

Her desire for finding friends is satisfied as a result, at the same time she becomes confident

that she can achieve what she wants by working on it. This causes persistence in her behavior.

5. Humanistic approach to Personality

The humanistic approach stresses that people possess a basic goodness, and have a natural

tendency to grow to higher levels of functioning.

They have a conscious, self-motivated ability to change and improve.

The basic goodness, and the natural tendency to grow, along with their unique creative

impulses form the core of personality.

Carl Rogers

All people require be loving and respecting. This is a universal phenomenon that is reflected in

their need for positive regard.

This love and regard comes to us from other people. When other people provide for this basic

need, we become dependent on them. We begin to rely on others' values and evaluate and

judge ourselves through the eyes of others.

Self-concept and conflicts

Our self-concept and others' opinions are related.

At times there may be discrepancies or conflicts between our self-concept (self-impression)

and our actual experiences.

Minor discrepancies lead to minor problems, whereas deeper conflicts lead to psychological

disturbances in daily functioning e.g. frequent obsessions or anxiety.

Unconditional positive regard

· A person's conflicts can be resolved if he receives unconditional positive regard from another

person.

Unconditional positive regard means an attitude of total acceptance and respect from another

person without any conditions. No matter what you say or do, the person accepts it.

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· As a result of this acceptance, a person gets an opportunity to evolve and grow cognitively as

well as emotionally, and to develop a more realistic self-concept.

Self-actualization

· According to the humanistic approach, self-actualization is the ultimate goal of personality

growth (see Rogers and Maslow).

Self-actualization is a state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their optimal potential.

Self-actualization occurs when our everyday life experiences and our self-concept match closely.

Self-actualized people accept themselves the way they are in reality. This enables them to

achieve happiness and a feeling of fulfillment.

6. Biological Approaches to Personality

Approaches that emphasize the significance of biological variables and inherited personality

characteristics.

These approaches propose that important components that constitute our personality are

inherited or genetically determined e.g. temperament.

Temperament

· Temperament is one of the main ingredients of personality.

· Temperament is the basic, innate disposition that emerges early in life.

· Even very young infants show signs of different dispositions e.g. some smile, some frown even

when otherwise at ease, some are irritable, some calm, some shy, and some restless.

Such behaviors persist and at an early stage in their life the children are labeled as stubborn,

shy, restless etc.

Inhibited children

· According to Jerome Kagan children who are unusually fearful of the sight of unfamiliar adults,

and fret when confronted with unfamiliar objects or new settings are the inhibited children.

Such children are labeled as "shy' by their parents and teachers by the age of 3-4 years.

They are consistently shy and emotionally restrained and noticeably quite in unfamiliar

situations.

The constitute around 10% of all children.

There are biological differences between the inhibited and uninhibited children:

· At age 5 muscle tension (especially in the vocal cords and the larynx) is higher in inhibited

children.

They differ in the heart beat pattern too. They experience more of rapid resting heartbeat. In

case of confronting a new situation their heart beat increases more.

Hormonal differences and variations in the excitability of the limbic system of the brain have

also been seen to be different in the two groups.

Kagan concluded that these differences can be explained in terms of an inborn characteristic of the

inhibited children i.e., their greater physiological reactivity.

Twin studies supporting the genetic argument

A number of studies on twins reared together and reared apart have supported the biological

approach to understanding personality.

Study by Auke Telegen and colleagues (1988):

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A sample of 350 pairs of twins was studied. They included 44 genetically identical twins who were

reared apart.

The subjects were given a battery of tests, including one that measured personality traits.

The results showed that

The twins were quit similar in their personality, in major respects.

There are certain traits that are more influenced by heredity than others.

Genetic component was found to be particularly strong in case of social potency and

traditionalism.

Genetic component was relatively weak in case of achievement and social closeness.

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